A crossing of railway tracks can be achieved with no moving parts if a wheel is allowed to ride over a gap where the rail paths cross. To provide continuous support of a wheel as it passes through a crossing, a swing nose crossing is conventionally used. This uses a movable pair of rails which form a so-called “swing nose”, which is a V shaped connection of two rails which taper to a point. The outer edges of the V shape define two possible rail paths, and the position of the swing nose is set to the rail path currently in use.
The swing nose is made from rails which are cut to appropriate length and machined to a taper along a large proportion of length to form a very narrow toe at the joined end. In this way, when seated snugly against one or other lateral supporting rails, the swing nose does not bring the gauge of the track out of tolerance.
A problem with this arrangement is that the swing nose is prone to wear. In addition, some swing nose crossing designs are not suitable for heavy freight.